Wyld Networks

A LoRaWAN gateway can serve multiple groups of devices at a time, although gateways are often deployed in overlapping groups. Devices will send out their signals as RF packets to be picked up by any gateway in range, with the strongest device to gateway connection passing the message on to the cloud. Having multiple gateways adds resilience to a network should one of them fail.

LoRaWAN gateways can be installed and run for a private network controlled by a company. For example, you may manage communications at a reservoir and need to measure water levels or water pressure at specific locations on the site. Physically collecting data from remotely located water level sensors could be difficult, time consuming and costly, but if your sensors are wirelessly connected with LoRaWAN then data can be collected easily and delivered directly to laptop and mobile apps. To do this the sensor will need to wirelessly pass the data first to a LoRaWAN gateway. The gateway will then pass the data from the multiple sensor array on to the cloud and ultimately to your app.

In some, mostly urban locations, LoRaWAN network providers may offer gateway connectivity as a service to multiple end users for a fee.

Once picked up by a gateway, RF signals are converted to a format that allows for faster transfer rates. The maximum data rate of LoRa, 50Kb/s, is enough for device to device or device to gateway communication, but would prove a serious bottleneck when trying to deliver thousands of messages to the cloud - hence the need for a well designed gateway to enable higher levels of data transfer from gateway to cloud.

Usually a connection between a gateway and the cloud is established with ethernet for speed but LTE and Wi-Fi are also practical substitutes in outdoor locations.

The data then becomes available in the cloud on whichever application required. Many sensors will come with their own app to display data in a useful way to the end user. For example Delta-T’s soil moisture sensors use their DeltaLink app to show data in graphs and tables making it easy to interpret information and make informed decisions.

To better contextualise this, LoRaWAN networks follow a mailbox system.

Gateways act as a mailbox between devices and the cloud, holding, but not reading, messages that go between them. The timing of messages depends on how often an end-device wakes up to send and receive data. If the cloud sends a message to a device, a gateway will hold the message until the device next wakes up.

Alerts can easily be set up in an app or as email or SMS alerts to let you know for example if a temperature reading falls outside a set parameter.

Some example apps in the agritech space that receive data from a LoRaWAN gateway might include:

Thousands of devices can run off a single gateway if necessary. The only thing that really limits the information any specific gateway can handle is how much data it has to deal with at once.

The demands on a gateway depend a lot on the data rate and number of messages. With sizes ranging from a few bytes to a few hundred per packet, the number of gateways handling these requests will vary.

A gateway servicing moisture monitors in a field might only receive data intermittently, maybe as low as once or twice a day, whereas one servicing deep storage where temperature changes mean spoiled goods will likely be dealing with a lot more messages to monitor conditions.

There isn’t a hard number that indicates just how much data one gateway can manage, but it’s always safe to assume that higher volumes of information delivered more frequently will limit how many devices a gateway can communicate with effectively.

Usually, on a public network, capacity will be built in, as network owners will add capacity with new gateways to extend coverage and handle traffic. However, this also raises the question of how you want to approach your network, publicly, or privately.

Gateways are routers equipped with a LoRa concentrator, allowing them to receive LoRa packets. There are two kinds of gateways:

At time of writing, LoRaWAN networks are publicly available in 137 countries under 157 different operators. Joining one of these operators is how many IoT deployments start, although as explained below, setting up your own network is possible, often preferable and sometimes necessary.

The coverage map above from Lora Alliance shows the countries where an open community network is available. The exact level of coverage varies and is far from 100% in any country. Geography is a key factor and currently more rural and remote areas are unlikely to be covered even in developed nations.

Using a public network comes with many advantages. Firstly the coverage is often quite wide, especially in urban environments, so setting up in range of a gateway is often achievable.

The second is how quick and accessible a public network is. Less infrastructure is required as a user so you can focus on what you do best - the end-devices that collect the data.

LoRa is also inexpensive as it runs on an unlicensed band, meaning licenses don’t have to be paid to a government authority by a network provider as they are with 4G and 5G. With an established provider, costs of using the network are therefore kept low, making it an affordable solution.

The map below is The Things Network ’s coverage map of Europe showing where multiple gateways are positioned near to one another.

Running your own gateway is a little more complicated. You need to know the particulars of how to configure the network and what software it should run, but in return it provides a private network limited to your organisation or others you share it with.

This has upsides in that you can easily monitor traffic and have the usual benefits associated with not relying on a third party. You have control over the location of the gateway which can increase efficiency and mean you can work even in the most remote or difficult to reach locations.

Running a private LoRaWAN network also gives control on capacity per gateway and comes with the option of loading your own firmware to make it truly specialised at its task. A private LoRaWAN gateway generally allows more edge processing flexibility and capability.

There are also implications about security. You may not want your data being controlled by an external provider. Running a localised closed system is ideal for this. Private LoRaWAN gateways allow increased control and security.

LoRaWAN Gateways are the link between the source of data - sensors in the environment - and people. They enable scale for the Internet of Things and are a key element in the chain that enables better visibility, reduction in costs, reduction in resource inputs, improved safety and better decision making.

To summarise the key points, IoT gateways can:

LoRa® and LoRaWAN® are registered trademarks of Semtech Corporation.

Low power IoT connectivity reaching far and wide - start an IoT rollout right nowRecent Blogs

© 2022-2025 Wyld Networks Ltd.